A polling company announced this morning that their latest Republican primary poll shows DeSantis with a whopping lead over Trump.
They report that their population size was 1,000 GOP primary voters nationally:
Our latest national poll of Republican primary voters finds Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with a 24-point lead over former President Trump in a head-to-head match-up.
DeSantis: 57%
Trump: 33%n=1,000 GOP primary voters nationally. Data was collected via an online panel Feb. 13-16.
— WPA Intelligence (@WPAIntel) February 24, 2023
If these are primary voters then I guess that means they are likely voters?
While I would love to see DeSantis with this kind of lead, I’m not sure I buy it entirely.
They note that their data was collected via an ‘online panel’. I’m not sure exactly what that means but anything ‘online’ would seem to throw some doubt at their results. I could be wrong about that.
Their poll is also ‘nationwide’. State polling would seem to be more desirable since votes are cast in each state.
I would also note that their poll has yet to be listed on Real Clear Politics for today, so that may say everything.
There are plenty of other national polls that go the other way, with some showing Trump with a whopping lead.
The point for me is that it’s very early and DeSantis hasn’t even entered the race yet. The field is going to grow significantly I believe and these polls will change over time. So I just don’t put much stock into them right now.